Commands for File System Administration

Most commands for file system administration have both a generic component
and a file system–specific component. Whenever possible, you should
use the generic commands, which call the file system–specific component.
The following table lists the generic commands for file system administration,
which are located in the /usr/sbin directory.

How File System Commands Determine the File System Type

The generic file system commands determine the file system type by following
this sequence:

From the -F option, if supplied.

By matching a special device with an entry in the /etc/vfstab file (if special is supplied).
For example, fsck first looks for a match against the fsck device field. If no match is found, it then checks the special device field.

By using the default specified in the /etc/default/fs file for local file systems and in the /etc/dfs/fstypes file for remote file systems.

Manual Pages for Generic and Specific Commands

Both the
generic commands and specific commands have manual pages in the man Pages(1M): System Administration Commands.
The manual page for the generic file system commands provide information about
generic command options only. The manual page for a specific file system command
has specific information about options for that file system. To look at a
specific manual page, append an underscore and the abbreviation for the file
system type to the generic command name. For example, to see the specific
manual page for mounting a UFS file system, type the following: